The nation is polarized! We hear this all the time.
There are the "red states" and the "blue states."
There are liberals (evil) and conservatives (good).
There are the rich and the poor.
Capital and Labor. Union and Non-union, (but mostly non-union
outside the public sector).
The nation is polarized!
But I suggest another measure of polarization that is even more
accurate.
THE POLARIZATION BETWEEN THE SMART AND THE STUPID!
Consider:
When David Brooks started at the NYT recently, one of his first
columns was about the "lack" of conservatives in our nation's
universities; especially in PhD programs and tenured teaching
positions.
WHY ARE CONSERVATIVES SO ABSENT FROM THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE OF THE
NATION?
Well, the implication of Brooks, et al, is DISCRIMINATION IN FAVOR OF
LIBERALS AT UNIVERSITIES!
But there is another more logical explanation.
Perhaps, being conservative is an anti-intellectual trait, and NOT
really a true political philosophy?
Perhaps "conservatism" is more an "appetite," than a valid debateable
doctrine?
Conservatives tend NOT to want to agrue on an intellectual level,
they prefer distraction and "wedge issues" or just changing the
subject.
The best example of this type of conservative is Wm. Buckley, who has
been unable to utter an understandable sentence since the Goldwater
Daze.
Conservatives are "me" people. Liberals tend to think in terms
of "we."
And, since government is really more about the "we" than the "me."
The liberals tend to have the better intellectual arguments about
government which is really an argument about the "we."
Even as conservatives, who are essentially creatures of personal
appetites and private greed, try to argue positions like; "greed is good," and other twaddle that has not been valid since the Stone Age; if then!
Conservatives tend to think that "government is bad." And, when they
are in office they PROVE IT by giving us BAD GOVERNMENT!
ELECTING CONSERVATIVES TO GOVERNMENT OFFICE IS LIKE HIRING A
BABYSITTER WHO TELLS YOU STRAIGHT AWAY THAT SHE--"HATES KIDS!"
CONSERVATIVES, WHO ABHOR GOVERNMENT FOR THE "WE," AND WHO PREFER TO
PURSUE PERSONAL GREED AND PRIVATE APPETITIES SHOULD HAVE LITTLE OR NO
CONTROL OF THE INSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT.
It's like letting a "hi-jacker" fly the plane!
No wonder Dubya has been such a spectacular failure as president!
